A/N-Just about 3 months ago, I posted the first chapter of Book One on this site. We've come a long way since then, but I hope you're all ready to stick around, as we've got a long ways to go as well. Hang on!

Chapter 8

Sword Lessons

We set sail again early the next day, the ship filled to the brim with supplies, and crew members determined to figure out what it was that now plagued not only the Lone Islands but possibly any land upon the ocean. All of us were determined, that is, save for one Eustace the hard-headed.

"You're all mad, you are." "Eustace, shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you, permanently," Camicazi snapped. The gang was all below deck, resting with the dragons as the ship sailed forward on a favoring wind. Eustace was glaring at us from the doorway to the room.

"Well, at least I have some sense of personal safety," he quipped. "I don't go around sleeping next to a bunch of murderous reptiles." He leveled his glare at me in particular. "And you're the worst of them all!" I glared back at him. "How so? Just because I'm part dragon?" I snarked. He nodded. "Yes, exactly! A person should be a person, nothing else! Most people consider being able to turn into a monster to be a bad thing."

Camicazi had finally had enough of his complaining. She jumped up and threw a knife over Eustace's head. He yelped in surprise and ducked as it buried itself into the wall behind him. "Shut your mouth and leave. Now," she growled, the threatening tone impossible to miss even by someone like Eustace. The boy at least had a little common sense, though, so he wisely scuttled down the hallway and disappeared to bother someone else. Cami walked over and grabbed the dagger out of the wall, slamming the door behind her as she spun around and stomped back over to where she was sitting earlier.

"To be perfectly honest, and don't you dare tell anyone else," she warned, sitting down next to Stormfly again, "I don't know how much longer I can actually deal with him." I laughed in response.

"Oh, the master of quick wits has finally met her match, has she?" I teased. She glared at me. "I don't take lightly to others talking down about my friends. That's my job. And he's about to push me to the point where I may well strangle him."

Stormfly lowered her head next to Cami, looking at her comfortingly. "Well, he's done nothing but complain as of yet, save for that one incident," she reminded. "It's not like he's actually got the capability to hurt any of us." I sighed, leaning against the wall. "I don't know about that," I said. "He's a bit of a loose cannon. It could well be just a matter of time, unless someone does knock some sense into him." We all just glanced at the now closed doorway, and sighed.

It wasn't just us, either, that Eustace was making mad. Hiccup and I both received a huge number of complaints all day from Snotlout and Thuggory, due to Eustace's arrogant taunting about their intelligence (and Snotlout's restriction on just hitting people to solve the problem). Hiccup, too, seemed about ready to nail him to a wall.

"He absolutely will not leave me alone about Toothless," he snapped. I nodded in agreement. "It's probably the black color and his green eyes," I commented. "That and, of course, the fact that he's a dragon." Hiccup threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "Oh, it's not just that he thinks Toothless looks mean. He's actually managed to convince himself all the dragons are somehow plotting against us too. He thinks the cute looks they give are just guises instead of the gentle creatures they actually are. Of all the stupid, bullheaded…"

He ranted for a minute or two while I just shrugged in reply. "Look, it's all well and good to complain about the complainer, Hiccup," I noted, "but unfortunately right now I know of only one real way to get him to stop it, and something tells me that Eustace would really hate going on a ride." Hiccup scoffed. "As if any of the dragons would even think of letting him get on them."

Eustace had also built up a rather nasty habit of getting in people's way. He had the same skill Hiccup once did, of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Already multiple times he had run directly into Caspian, me, a number of crewmen, and even his own cousins. And was there even an apology after he came barreling around a corner or up the stairs? Nope, of course not. All he gave in response would be to yell at us to "Watch where you're going!" with the same response coming from the other party. It was only a matter of time, we all knew, before he would end up doing something really, really dumb.

We were right. A few days later, as he tired of having only the rations we all shared, Eustace finally went overboard on his bad ideas. Not literally mind you, though that would have given great satisfaction to many of us.

I came up to the top deck to help move some baskets out of the way, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted Eustace on his way down toward the kitchen. However, it was nowhere near lunchtime, and he wasn't exactly being open about it, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed him and slinking along the wall. As soon as he passed through the doorway and down the stairs, I morphed into a miniature Ampithere and slithered down after him, expecting to catch him in the act.

Big surprise, he went down there for food. I watched from behind a barrel of flour as Eustace looked around the supply room, checking on occasion to see if anyone was coming. When he didn't see anyone, he quickly knelt down and pulled out an orange from the basket he stood by and stuffed it into his shirt.

"ARE you aware," a voice chimed in loudly, making Eustace jump, "stealing rations is a capital offense at sea?" I looked up, but didn't see anyone right away, though I knew whose voice that was. Eustace did the same, frantically searching for the source. "Up here," it came again, and Reepicheep stepped into view on a shelf above Eustace's head.

"Oh, it's you," Eustace sniveled. Reep crossed his arms in reply. "Men have been killed for less before, don't you know," he quipped. "And you're getting into enough trouble as it is." Eustace stuffed his hands innocently into his pockets and started shuffling toward the door. "I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered. My eyebrows furrowed, and I slithered out into view, blocking the entrance.

"I do," I hissed. "I've been here the whole time, it's not like you're going to just walk away after stealing food." Eustace froze and glared between the two of us Reepicheep jumped down onto a nearby barrel and put out his paw. "Look, just hand me the orange, and we'll let the matter pass." As his tail came forward to grab the orange as well, Eustace finally snapped a little, grabbing onto it to stop Reep from moving any further forward. Ignoring my snickering, he snapped, "Look, I've had quite enough of the both of you, so-"

His words died as Reepicheep took in a sharp breath and pulled out his sword, leveling it at the boy. "Put the tail down," he said lowly, "No one, I repeat no one, touches my tail." Eustace opened his hand, letting Reep go and backing away slowly. "Sorry, sorry!" he squeaked, but the damage had already been done. I smirked again and slid forward, grabbing a large knife and thrusting the handle into Eustace's hand. "You'll need it," I replied to his confused and concerned look, and nodded back to Reep, who smiled. "Yes, now, I will have the orange back, and then I will have satisfaction!"

Eustace shook his head. "No please, I'm a pacifist!" But Reep didn't care, thrusting his sword forward with an "En guard!" Eustace jumped backward and bolted for the door, for once not caring that he had to jump over me to get there. I grinned and moved out of the way, gesturing with my tail to Reep. "After you!" Reep grinned back and ran out, followed by me last of all.

Eustace dove between two crewmen and ran along the side of the ship. Reepicheep jumped up and grabbed a loose rope, swinging up past Eustace. "Trying to run away?" he joked. "You are on a boat, you know. The ship's only so big." He landed on a barrel in front of the boy and held his sword out at ready. "En guard!" he shouted again. Eustace sloppily backpedaled and tried to block Reep's strike, his arms flailing ridiculously.

"Stop flapping like a drunken seagull!" the mouse snapped, jumping up to the railing. "It's all about poise! Sword up, arms loose, but firm and at the ready!"

"So, what's going on here?" I heard behind me. I turned to see Hiccup and Cami walking up onto the deck. "Oh, Reep's punishing Eustace for stealing an orange," I drawled, gesturing to the orange that had by now fallen out of Eustace's shirt as he ran, "and giving him an impromptu and badly needed sword-fighting lesson at the same time."

Reep was getting the better of Eustace, naturally, snapping the tip of his sword at the boy's ankles, while Eustace found an entirely new reason to get up in arms and complain: getting picked on by a "rat." However, he was finally actually starting to try and fight back against Reep, managing to block a blow every now and then. At that point, I decided I didn't want the mouse to have all the fun, and stepped forward, morphing back to human.

"Hey Reep!" I called, grinning. He jumped out of the way of Eustace's swing, and glanced up at me. I pulled out the team sword I had (the one whose design was shared by Hiccup, Astrid, and Cami), and gestured to Eustace. "Mind if I take a turn?" He chuckled and nodded, moving out of the way, Eustace missing our short chat and following him.

"Hey, Eustace, over here," I called, and he turned to focus on me, before blanching pale. "Oh no, no, no no no no no no," he whined, backing up and losing the motivation he'd built up against Reepicheep. I nodded and replied mockingly, "Oh yes, yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes!" I lifted my sword up. "Despite how little I really like you, I agree you need to learn a few basic skills anyway, especially since you're stuck with us. Sword up!" He nervously brought his sword to face mine, and I swung in a purposefully slow arc toward him. "Follow my lead: Strike! Block! Slide! Block! Parry! No, other side. Block! Down, block, lift, stroke, swing, block side block side parry strike block down block strike!" As I ordered what to do slowly at first, he followed and, as I started going faster, so did he. I stopped for a moment and stepped back. "Now, come after me, try to catch me off guard!" I commanded. He raised an eyebrow, pensive, but swung his knife at me anyway.

I blocked all his moves, of course, but Eustace was getting better slowly, a fast learner. Eventually, I decided to turn him back over to Reepicheep, spinning around behind him and grabbing the arm he held his knife in, and pointing it toward the mouse. "Now try it again," I suggested, stepping back into the crowd that had grown around us.

Reep led Eustace around the deck, plying in and out of the ropes and baskets, still taunting him the whole way. But this time, Eustace looked a slight bit less pathetic about the whole thing, managing to catch Reep a couple times and throw him off balance, but the mouse had been at this for much longer, and even after pretending to fall off the ship, he got the better of him, swinging around the side and kicking Eustace into me. "And that, is that!" he crowed as I grabbed Eustace's sword arm again and easily removed the weapon.

"Always face your opponent," I said. "Never let them get behind you." Eustace pursed his lips for a moment, but then nodded. "Well, had I been matched against someone closer to my size instead of Reep, it would have been an entirely different result," he muttered back. I laughed in response. "Indeed. You would have ended up on the ground or knocked over a basket, just a few minutes later." Eustace groaned and glared at me. "How do you figure that? I wasn't that bad was I?" I smiled as I turned away. "Oh, I have my ways of knowing. Though it looks like we may have a chance at making a swordsman of you yet!"

I returned the makeshift sword back to its original location, as well as the AWOL orange, and found Hiccup still on the deck. "Tell me, must you always show off when these things happen?" he prodded. I just shrugged. "Eh, it's more fun that way. Besides, it's not like either of us actually went over the top with him."

"LAND HO!"

We both jerked and looked up at the lookout above us. I raised an eyebrow, and muttered, "Already?" Hiccup glanced at me. "What, do you know where we are?" I shrugged again. "Possibly. The next stop in the movie was a magician's island." "Magician's island? What do you mean? I thought magicians were a bad thing." I smiled. "Well, depends on if he's actually a magician or not. I could be totally wrong here. But, hopefully there's nothing to worry about, we'll see."

A/N- Eustace is a very loose cannon; things have only just started with him. Meanwhile, stay tuned! And as always, make sure to leave a review and let me know what you think!